Looking Back - Before Women Had Wings

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler
Fiction
1997 Ballantine Books (first published in 1996)
Finished in October 1997
Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

My name is Avocet Abigail Jackson. But because Mama couldn't find anyone who thought Avocet was a fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which is okay by me. She named both her children after birds, her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the shit in our lives. . . .

So says Bird Jackson, the mesmerizing narrator of Connie May Fowler's vivid and brilliantly written, Before Women Had Wings.

Starstruck by a dime-store picture of Jesus, Bird fancies herself "His girlfriend" and embarks upon a spiritual quest for salvation, even as the chaos of her home life plunges her into a stony silence. In stark and honest language, she tells the tragic life of her father, a sweet-talking wanna-be country music star, tracks her older sister's perilous journey into womanhood, and witnesses her mother make a courageous and ultimately devastating decision.

Yet most profound is Bird's own story--her struggle to sift through the ashes of her parents' lives, her meeting with Miss Zora, a healer whose prayers over the bones of winged creatures are meant to guide their souls to heaven, and her will to make sense of a world where fear is more plentiful than hope, retribution more valued than love. . . .

My Original Notes (1997):

This was a difficult book to read. I wanted to quit so many times, but hung in there. It wasn't that it was boring, but that it was full of so much physical and verbal abuse. I was sickened by Glorie Marie's abuse on her two daughters. Horrible, cruel brutality, both physically and mentally. Yet Bird proved to be a strong girl with the love and kindness bestowed on her by her new friend, Miss Zora. I was so glad the book had a happy ending. I kept hoping it would.

My Current Thoughts:

I don't remember this book at all and after reading my notes, I have no desire to read it again!